Today’s weekly grind is gonna go a little differently than others. Instead of explaining every set and how to do the exercises I’m going to talk a little about my warm up and cool down routine. Also, this was my first leg workout in a while and I went very light on everything to test out my knees and they feel great. I’m slowly going to incorporate legs from here on out, slowly but surely I’ll get to squatting again 🙂
For both of these workouts, I did a warm up and a cool down afterward. It’s very important to prepare your body in the right places before you start putting it through hell. It is also important to slow down and cool down before you leave the gym.
Warm up:

Hip circles: 1×15 (each side)

Single leg bridges: 1×15

Leg swings: 1×30 sec (each side)

This is usually done as soon as I go to the gym. This will help fix muscle imbalances, warm up your hamstrings, glutes, and lower back. If you’re doing any sort of strength training glute activation will help you get stronger and will help you stay injury free. The most important thing when it comes to the gains is how long can you work out for, so preventing injury is one of your best arsenals to getting gains.
On top of warming up before exercises, it’s also important to warm up before EVERY exercise you do. It’s simple and quick before you start your sets of bench press don’t just go straight to your working weight. A decent warm-up for someone with a bench press of 225 lbs is as such:

1 set with just the bar for 10-20 reps

1 set of 95 lbs for 3-8 reps

1 set of 145 lbs for 3-5reps

1 set of 185 for 3 reps

Then start your actual set of bench press. The same principle applies to all other exercises, some you’ll have to warm up more than other but you have to find that out for yourself.
For the bench press always start with just the bar, it’s not the temperature of the muscles that are you’re trying to “warm up” but the movement pattern, the cues, warm up your mind to muscle connection, form, etc. The word “warm up” should be taken differently than what most people think it is. You’re not just warming up the temperature of your muscles, you’re preparing your body for all out effort.

Everyone’s warm up is may not be the same and you have to figure that out what works best for you. The main point is to warm BUT not getting tired out.
Now on to the cool down.
Static stretch or foam roll anything you need to work on such as piriformis, hamstrings, adductors, calves, psoas, etc. hold every stretch you do for at least 60 sec.
Then finish off with:

Upward dog for 2 breaths

Child’s pose for 2 breaths

Corpse pose for 10 deep breaths

The reason for a cool down is to allow your body to get out of its fight or flight state and bring it back down to everyday life state. Cooling down after your workout will allow you to recover better from your workouts, increase oxygen to your body, lead to better sleep, reduce cortisol levels, and the most important in my opinion will make your workouts a routine with a beginning and end. The mental aspect of warming up and cooling are the habit building benefits. Treat this time like it’s the most important time of your day, it’s a time to decompress, to better yourself, and let some steam loose from everyday stress.

I hope you enjoyed it and got something out of it. On that note, thanks for reading! If you enjoyed it or think it may help someone else out, please spread the word. If you’re interested in future posts, subscribe below (scroll all the way down) and get notified when I put out the next post. Thanks for reading and stay tuned!